MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. - As long as players have transferred to other schools, accusations of tampering have been part of the college landscape. Now that NIL (name, image, and likeness) is part of the equation, those accusations have grown louder.
“We’re all playing the same game, but we have different rules in some parts,” Florida head coach Billy Napier said Tuesday at the SEC spring meetings. “There’s no doubt tampering is real and is an issue, and until something is done about it, it will continue.”
Head coaches at this week’s SEC spring meetings at the Sandestin Hilton are expected to broach the subject, although it’s unclear what steps might be taken.
Like Napier, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said tampering has been around for years.
"Look, I'm not one that gets deep into these issues. People have hot-button topics that they want to talk about; they've got a word they want to talk about,” Smart said. “I think tampering's been going on for a long time. It's probably more prevalent because it's so much easier to transition from one school to another by way of the portal.”
However, Smart isn’t sure how to police other schools from tampering more effectively than the current rules allow.
“Well, there are penalties for tampering. Most of the time, if they have a clear case, there’s something done about it,” Smart said. “The problem is it’s hard to police that, and it was hard to police that before. It’s disturbing, and it’s upsetting.”
Napier agrees.
"So ultimately, I think, to each his own, we all got an approach that we've chosen to take," Napier said. "We're going to control what we control at the University of Florida. That's our player experience, that's our evaluation process, our recruitment process to try to position our team in the best position."
Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze knows what he would like to do.
"I would love to see it go back to players not being able to transfer and be immediately eligible unless the coach leaves or fired or they graduate," Freeze said. "And I think that eliminates tampering. People are not going to come take players if they have to sit out, unless it's one of those two reasons. But I don't think that will ever happen again. So outside of that, I don't know how you really stop some of the discussions that will take place."
Smart added it’s not always coaches who are to blame. Sometimes, it’s the players themselves. Trainers, or even high school coaches can be a part of it.
“A lot of times it’s the player that is negotiating or looking for greener pastures. Sometimes they create tampering. It goes both ways. It’s hard to police,” Smart said. “If a kid goes to his trainer or high school coach, well, in our program we have people talking to those trainers and high school coaches. Word of mouth spreads that a guy's not happy and he's looking. Next thing you know, he's in the portal and he's already got somewhere that he wants to go.”
However, as Smart pointed out, his Bulldogs are not really a portal team.
After not adding any transfers in 2022, Georgia only added three since winning its second straight national title.
“We have not been a major portal team. I could be telling you something those 12, 13, or 14 other guys come in here and say is a major issue. I’m not trying to go out and get anybody else,” Smart said. “I want to get a kid from high school and develop him. Now ultimately if we have a deficiency somewhere or we have a spot available, then we’ll look to use the portal. But it’s not something we’ve done a lot."
Smart’s more worried about retention
“I worry a lot more about my roster and say 'How do we manage the people that we have so that they don't want to go somewhere else?' I focus on that, not - a lot of these teams have people on their staff that go out and watch the opposing team on the field to write down how they look, how they run,” Smart said. “They're surveying the field for the portal. We're not that elaborate. We're going to try to focus on our guys, and retention is probably more important to me."
